Summers told business and government leaders attending the
annual meeting of the World Economic Forum that rejecting greater
global integration would have ``tragic'' consequences for the
country.

``A strongly integrated global economy provides the best, and
the most cost-effective forward defense of United States core
interests that there is,'' Summers said.

Violent protests in the streets of Seattle last December
contributed to the failure of efforts to begin a new round of
negotiations aimed at liberalizing trade.

Those protests spread to Davos yesterday, as demonstrators
broke windows and fought with police, trying to disrupt the
conference during a speech by President Bill Clinton.

Although Clinton and other leaders here have committed to
increasing global trade, fear that trade is a losing political
issue has been a central theme of the conference here.

Summers said more must be done, by U.S. officials and the
business leaders in attendance, to convince opponents that trade
can be broadened without threatening labor and environmental
standards.

``Making this case more effectively to all our people will be
crucial to our capacity to move forward,'' Summers said. ``Our
agenda today must be to make the case for imports in all our
countries.''

In the U.S., key tests for that proposition will be efforts
this year to win congressional approval of normal trading status
for China, as well lowering trade barriers for African and
Caribbean nations, Summers said.

Supporting Reform

Summers' comments were echoed by U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright, who said that the key challenge for the U.S.
is to promote not only democracy but also free trade.
``We can do much to meet this challenge by helping more
people and more countries to become full participants in the world
economy,'' Albright said.

Summers demurred when asked whether he sees a threat to
economic security in congressional opposition to normal trade
relations with China, or organized labor's opposition to virtually
every trade agreement negotiated or proposed by the Clinton
administration.
``The reluctance in some quarters to support participation in
international organizations, or to support particular trade
agreements, were it to become a pervasive pattern, does raise very
real questions,'' he said. ``But I think the answer does not lie
in vilifying particular groups, but in finding appropriate modes
of bringing together ranges of policies that address particular
concerns.''

Russia Concerns

The world, meanwhile, must continue to create more stable
capital flows from the industrial countries to developing nations,
he said.

That means increased transparency in public and private
transactions, and more effective ways to resolve financial crises
when they occur -- including reform of the International Monetary
Fund, Summers said.

At the same time, the developed world must do more to support
economic reform in emerging market economies, including Russia.
``Indeed, in a number of respects these countries are probably
less far along the road, ten years after the fall of the Berlin
Wall, than many Western European countries were ten years after
World War II,'' he said.

While countries shape their own destiny, ``international
support can make a powerful difference,'' Summers said.

Albright warned that the unfulfilled economic expectations
that came with democracy to Russia could ultimately threaten the
survival of that democracy.

``Such frustrations raise the risk there and elsewhere that
public confidence in elected government will erode and fuel
support for failed remedies from the past, including protectionism
and authoritarianism,'' she said.

Debt Relief

Governments can help by increasing efforts to provide debt
relief to the world's poorest countries, including the Highly
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative being pushed by the Group of
Seven industrial nations, he said. That group jointly owe about
$27 billion.

The IMF is in the process of revaluing it's gold stock to
provide debt write-offs to a number of nations. The Clinton
administration has also promised to write off the bilateral debts
of HIPC-qualified countries.

``It is good economics and good accounting to write off debts
that will never be repaid,'' Summers said. ``What will be critical
will be ensuring full implementation so that the poorest will see
rapid results.'

Finally, Summers said the world must increase cooperation on
trans-border problems, including global warming, money laundering
and support for the global growth of electronic commerce. He
joined Clinton in calling for support for development of vaccines
to eradicate diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
``The benefits to the United States from international
integration with the rest of the world are greater today than they
ever have been,'' Summers said. ``With so much to lose, the risks
of disengagement are equally larger than they have ever been.''

Answers

Yada,yada,yada. The oligarchs plans are succeding, Want the long term
plan? Buy a copy of the Gov't sponsered report,"The Report From Iron
Mountain" 1967,Dial Press, and you'll find just how long these sellout
shitheels have been planning this NWO coup. Vote REFORM or you can
kiss the Constitution farewell.Free trade is not free,Fair trade is.

Report from Iron Mountain was a forgery written during the Vietnam
war. It was supposed to be the transcript of a meeting of US elites
worrying about how peace would be bad for profits.

It was probably true in the sense of how the elite felt, but it was
false in the sense it was a bogus: no such meeting ever occurred; the
entire book was the work of one individual who came forward a few
years ago to confess.

Well, there's free trade and then there is free trade. The Clinton
Adm's version is that we are dependent on the rest of the world for
our goods and impose no tariffs on it; while the Chinese (for example)
impose 40% tariffs on any goods from the U.S. As long as the U.S. is
brought down to a third-world nation, then it's free trade. And if we
complain about, then we are threat.